After receiving a form in English from National Savings and Investments, 72-year-old Arfon Rhys sent it back and requested either a Welsh or bilingual form.

The letter he then received from NS&I – a state-owned savings bank backed by the Treasury – said: “We have received correspondence from you in your own language. As we do not translate from your language into English, we can’t reply to your letter.

“I enclose your original document so that you can arrange for it to be translated into English and resent to us. We will then be able to deal with your request.”

In a handwritten comment, the reason for returning the letter to Mr Rhys was given as “letter in a foreign language (Welsh)”.

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Mr Rhys, who lives in Rhos Isaf near Caernarfon , said he was “angered” by the arrival of the letter and has now made a complaint to the Welsh Language Commissioner.

The letter was written on March 12, just days after a landmark ruling that NS&I acted unlawfully by ending Welsh language services.

The letter describing Welsh as a foreign language

On March 6, two High Court judges in Cardiff ordered NS&I to restore its customer services in Welsh. They ruled that the agency’s decision last year to scrap its Welsh-language brochures, telephone service, correspondence and website was unlawful.

Mr Rhys said: “Whenever I get a letter from a public body in English, I write back to request it in Welsh. I’ve had success with some organisations and accept most of the responses I get.

“What angered me about this was that they referred to Welsh as a foreign language. They clearly recognised the language as Welsh but called it a foreign language. It’s the official language of Wales.”

Mr Rhys said this month’s ruling against NS&I was “very important” and had set a precedent which other government departments would have to follow.

He said the actions of individuals are also important in increasing awareness of the Welsh language.

“Ordinary people doing small things makes a difference,” he said.

“I would encourage people to send a polite letter asking for correspondence in Welsh. The customer is important to any organisation and it’s with the customer that the power lies. At the end of the day, this was bad customer service on the part of NS&I.”

A spokeswoman for NS&I said: “We apologise for using the term ‘letter in a foreign language’ in correspondence to our customer – this should not have happened.

“Regarding the outcome of the recent judicial review of NS&I’s Welsh language service, we can’t give a definitive date when the service will be running again but we have begun work to reinstate it.”

A spokeswoman for the Welsh Language Commissioner said: “The Welsh Language Commissioner is aware of this issue. We are currently considering the matter in accordance with our relevant procedures. To avoid compromising the outcome of the case, the Commissioner will not make any further comment at this time.”